Laguna Niguel Community Theatre opens their production of Into The Woods tonight at Crown Valley Park @ 6:30 and runs for two weekends ending August 6th Tickets are on sale at the door and on their website: http://lagunanigueltheatre.org/tickets/ (prices range from $10-20)
LNCT was founded by local theatre teacher Jeremy Golden and his wife Jennifer Golden. They state their mission as being “dedicated to producing dramatic art by, with and for the citizens of Laguna Niguel. We are a like-minded community of artists wishing to produce work that is artistically brave, morally responsible, and community-minded.”
“For LNCT’s third summer musical, we wanted a show that stretched our audience a little.” Director Jeremy Golden wrote to me, “Fiddler on the Roof and Wizard of Oz were both extremely familiar to most of our community and were well received. Into the Woods is very well known in the theatre community but less so in the general population. Many remember the movie that came out not long ago, and others may have been aware of the recent national tour. We wanted to bring this incredible show to our local community consciousness. Besides, the show is unbelievable. Combining the stories we all know so well with deep themes that we can all relate to. We also wanted to stretch our company a bit more. Stephen Sondheim’s music is certainly a step up in terms of musical complexity. The demands on our cast are certainly higher this summer.”
Actresses Megan Kerrigan and Camryn Graves get ready for tech/dress rehearsal earlier this week
Into The Woods, book by James Lapine and lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim, is a 1980’s musical that features plotlines and characters from many familiar and wildly popular classic fairytales such as Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack and The Beanstalk, and Rapunzel. Many will remember the 2014 Disney movie adaptation with James Corden as The Baker and Meryl Streep as The Witch. The show’s plot revolves around the simple yet complex theme of wanting, or in the case of the lyrics, a “wish”. Each character goes into the woods searching for something they desire but finds their wishes not as rewarding as they imagined them to be. Just when all seems to be “happily ever after”, something happens that changes these Fairy-tales and their respective creatures forever. If you’re looking for a traditional Grimm’s fairy tale you won’t find it in Into The Woods. But, if you enjoy movies such as La La Land, with its Singing in The Rain inspired realism, you will find Into The Woods to be a refreshing contemporary adaptation.
Emillie Manville gets ready to play Milky White the Cow
“It is important to note that, while every effort has been made to make the production as family friendly as possible, there are themes in the show (especially in the second act) that are decidedly PG-rated. There are depictions of death and loss, and issues of fidelity and pain. The issues are handled with deepest care and moral explorations, but parents of small children are cautioned nonetheless.” – Jeremy Golden
Sondheim’s second major produced work, the show touches on themes such as parenthood, disillusionment, and growing up. In literary terms, forests symbolize the unconscious or one’s true self. This is shown in Into The Woods by the desires and actions of the story’s main characters. Their actions make us as the audience wonder if the ends really do justify the “beans”.
“As a view from an actor that’s growing up, it’s getting to understand the show better than just fairy tales getting mixed up. It’s actually really fun to look deeper into the script and figure out that it’s actually about growing up.” Megan Kerrigan, who plays Little Red told me, “I’ve learned how to show applies to my life right now, especially since I’m going to college and I have to grow up and accept the world as it is. What we’ve put into the show and how the actors are interpreting their roles is quite different than the others productions I’ve seen.”
As I said earlier, LNCT’s production takes place at Crown Valley Park on their outdoor amphitheater. Actors and stagehands from around Laguna Niguel and surrounding areas help set up the home-made, story book set. The company includes teenagers from local high schools and adults from all around the community joined by a common interest in theatre. “The words are very difficult as with all Sondheim, so the music has been a challenge to learn but it’s been fun.” Paul Breazeale who plays The Baker told me, “I haven’t acted in four years, it’s been awhile since I’ve been in a play. I’ve learned a lot about the arch of a character in this play because it’s a very challenging story arch. He goes through a lot of emotional and psychological changes. It’s been a real challenge to kind of learn how to make that happen on stage in the space of two hours.” 
Elle Grant as The Witch in LNCT's Into The Woods (photo provided by Brenda Ostrander)
Many of the shows designers are local community members. Mackenzie Greiner who plays Cinderella is also co-wig and makeup designer. “It was a huge undertaking, but I’m glad I did it. It was definitely a growing experience. Wig and makeup designer is definitely something I wanted to put on my resume and kind of feel out how much I liked it and this is a great show to do it on because this is such an intense show for all of that.” She also had some thoughts on the character of Cinderella, “she’s very indecisive. She lives one decision to the next. She doesn’t know what’s coming next. So there’s got to be that urgency there every single moment of life onstage.”
“Sondheim’s the worst, and also he’s a genius.” Jack Townsend who plays Rapunzel’s Prince told me about the process, “I didn’t really know Sondheim, the only Sondheim show I knew was Sweeny Todd. I didn’t know he wrote [the lyrics for] west side story I just found that out after doing this production. I only know into the woods as the Disney movie and it’s very different like [*heinous spoilers*] and it’s shown in the movie that Cinderella’s Prince is awful and unfaithful but Rapunzel’s prince is too. The show is way deeper than one would think. First act people will leave because they think it’s over because of the way that they tie it up and then act 2 is just “this is what happens after” and it’s such a shift in tone and it caught me completely off guard. Just learning about the show and Sondheim, in general, were big things for me.”
“Even though it says community theatre I think there’s a lot of professional quality people in it. I think a lot of the leads are really really talented and they have great voices and great stage presence so it’ll be fun.” (Paul Breazeale)
Don’t miss Into The Woods, this or next weekend!
The company has grown from putting on a summer musical to providing theatre arts classes for kids to adults.
More information can be found here: http://lagunanigueltheatre.org/education/#adultacting.
